Famolare
{{Short description|American footwear company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Famolare
| founded = 1969
| founder = Joe Famolare Jr.
| location = New York City
| industry = Fashion
| website = {{url|https://www.famolare.com/}}
}}
Famolare is a footwear company founded in 1969. It was active for several years before its hiatus, and multiple designs appear in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
History
The shoe company was founded in 1969 by Joe Famolare Jr.,{{Cite web|url=https://footwearnews.com/entertainment-news/culture/obit-joe-famolare-82-142530/|title=Obit: Joe Famolare, 82|date=July 12, 2013}} featuring a method of absorbing the shock of walking on the foot.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hK0rPUF85loC&dq=famolare+shoe&pg=PA151 |page=151 |title= From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century |author=David Mansour |year=2005|publisher=Andrews McMeel |isbn=978-0-7407-5118-9 }} Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus wrote that Famolare was the most consistent or popular luxury brand in footwear alongside other name brands in the US like Kleenex and the Four Seasons hotel.{{cite book |page=139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_SLrLJqhW4C&dq=famolare+shoe&pg=PA139 |title= Stanley Marcus from A-Z Viewpoints, Volume II |author=Stanley Marcus |year=2000| publisher=University of North Texas Press | isbn=978-1-57441-073-0 }} The company was headquartered in NYC.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=K-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45 |page=45-46 |title=The New York Debut of De-Architecture |date=June 29, 1981 |publisher=The New Yorker}} Famolare was known for its thick, wavy soles,{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=l-ICAAAAMBAJ&dq=famolare+shoe&pg=PA51 |title= Lost Department Stores of San Francisco |page=127 |author=Anne Evers Hitz |year=2020}} which they named “four-wave platforms”.They patented the sole.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/23/magazine/beauty-by-deborah-blumenthal.html |date=May 23, 1982 |work=New York Times |title=The Shock Absorbers |author=Deborah Blumenthal}} The Famolare shoes, according to the New York Times coverage in 1975, were manufacturing its shoes in Florence, Italy with the officies in the United States, Switzerland and New Zealand.{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Stacy V. Jones Special to The New York |date=1975-07-12 |title=Laboratory Method Is Utilized to Test Tires |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/12/archives/laborator-method-is-utilized-to-test-tires-patents-laboratory-tire.html |access-date=2025-05-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}
Famolare became known for its provocative advertising,{{cite book |page=144 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=QFY_DwAAQBAJ&dq=famolare+shoe&pg=PA42 |author= Kim Golombisky and Peggy J. Kreshel |publisher=Lexington books |title= Feminists, Feminisms, and Advertising: Some Restrictions Apply |year=2017| isbn=978-1-4985-2827-6 }} including ads where women were naked but for their shoes,Golombisky and Kreshel, 39. however they reversed course in the 1980s. The change in advertising led the company to receive the Liberty Award from Ms. Magazine in 1981 for “non-sexist advertisement”.{{cite book |page=105 |publisher=Lexington Books |title=Sex Stereotyping in Advertising |author=Alice E. Courtney, Thomas W. Whipple |year=1983}} By the 1990s the shoe brand was available by mail order.{{Cite web|url=https://greensboro.com/70s-shoes-funky-famolare-shoes-available-by-mail-order/article_24e50881-834d-5a84-9c09-872c8fddf635.html|title='70s Shoes: Funky Famolare Shoes Available by Mail-Order|first=Jean|last=Patteson|date=October 26, 1993|website=Greensboro News and Record}} Several styles of shoes have been preserved in the Met Museum in NYC, including the "Violin" created in 1971,{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/115582|title=Joe Famolare | "Violin" | American|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|date=1971 }} a pair of clogs created in 1973,{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/96218|title=Famolare | Clogs | Italian|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|date=1973 }} and a pair of 1975 sandals.{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/115594|title=Joe Famolare | Sandals | American|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|date=1975 }}